Willis helps Riley overcome Colonials

February 10, 2006|BOB WIENEKE Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- As Riley boys basketball coach Mark Johnson sat in the coaches' dressing room and dissected Thursday night's game against Clay, he explained how a team will often generate offense from a defensive stop. Often, but not all the time. "We did it kind of backwards tonight," Johnson said after his team's 64-52 victory at the Riley Gym. The win improved Riley's record to 7-10 overall and evened its Northern Indiana Conference mark at 3-3. It also was Johnson's 250th career victory. Clay dropped to 8-9, 2-4 in the NIC. Trailing 26-25 early in the third quarter, Riley used an 11-0 flurry to wrestle away control of the game. Tony Willis ignited the run with a 3-pointer, J.T. Breveard followed a missed shot with a basket. Willis then hit another 3 and Doug Jackson converted a three-point play to turn the one-point deficit into a 10-point Riley lead. "When we're playing well," Johnson said, "we are able to score in spurts." At the front of the tide-turning spurt was Willis, who scored a game-high 21 points, 11 of them coming in the key third period. "We let Willis get looks," Clay coach Joe Huppenthal lamented. "You can't let him get wide-open looks like he had, and tonight they were capitalizing on it." "He was able to get in a rhythm," Johnson added, "and Tony is a rhythm shooter." Willis was one of three Wildcats in double figures. C.J. Macon scored 14 and Michael Taylor added 10. Mateen Kenny led Clay with 17 points, all but four of them coming in the second half. Nick Vail added nine points, and it was his final basket of the night -- a 3-pointer early in the second half -- that gave the Colonials their final lead. Vail had scored 15 points in Clay's most recent game, and his first-half total of six seemed like a conservative figure to Johnson. "I think Vail had 90 for them in the first half," Johnson said. Clay played without leading scorer Daniel Payne, who was serving a one-game suspension for violating the school's code of conduct. Riley is idle until it travels to Washington on Feb. 17, while Clay hosts Mishawaka the same night. "We'll get this thing back on the right track," Huppenthal said. "We'll be OK. We will be OK." Along with the win, Riley also won the Kevin Powers Memorial Trophy, which honors the late Riley athlete and Clay statistician. Powers' son, Matt, is Riley's JV coach. RILEY 64, CLAY 52At South Bend CLAY (52): Nick Vail 3 0-0 9, Justin Rector 1 0-0 3, Kenny Moffett 2 3-5 8, Mateen Kenny 8 0-0 17, Matt King 2 0-0 4, Evan Youngquist 1 2-2 4, Cortney Diggins 0 0-0 0, Kurt Grandin 0 0-0 0, Antonio Capers 3 1-1 7. TOTALS: 20 6-8 52. RILEY (64): Michael Hunt 1 2-2 4, Donny Wirt 0 0-0 0, Doug Jackson 3 1-1 7, Tony Willis 7 3-3 21, William Leeks 0 0-0 0, C.J. Macon 6 2-2 14, J.T. Breveard 0 7-9 7, Michael Taylor 4 1-2 10, Ronald Mitchem 0 1-2 1, Chris Stokes 0 0-0 0, Nathan Townsell 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21 17-21 64. Clay16233552Riley15254564